Hey, folks, guess what? The United States government isn't supposed to be the World's Greates Employment Office! Where do we see that in the Constitution? Is it one of the penumbras the Supreme Court hasn't found yet?
Do any of you have any idea of the number of foreign nationals who come to this country for advanced technical degrees? Take a look at just about any university's graduation program and you'll see an example of what I'm talking about.
Are y'all wanting to exclude them, too? After all, some of them might be terrorists -- or turn into terrorists on return to their home country.
Which is where they'd be headed if it weren't for H-1B visas. Getting a degree in physics or math is, for many fortunate individuals, a rather trivial exercise compared to getting a green card. Colleges and universities absolutely love foreign students who pay full-rate tuition (that subsidizes our own kids who get in-state tuition breaks of typically 70-80% of the actual cost) and boost the school's diversity index to keep the equality police at bay.
How many American kids are kept out of grad school on account of foreign competition for available slots? You can bet it's plenty. American universities have a deserved reputation as some of the best in the world in science and engineering, so why wouldn't an Indian or Iraqi or Korean or Nigerian with the requisite talent want to apply? Are we going to push for a federal law restricting student visas, too?
Trade protectionism is a failed policy that leads to poverty, political turmoil and war.
Employment (and, by extension, immigration) restrictions prevent employers from hiring the employees they need.
In times past, Democrats were the ones wanting to force workers to join unions in order to get a job, saying to consumers, "look for the union label." Americans bought Detroit iron, the auto workers got rich at our expense and people traded cars in after two years because they were worn out after three.
Some Democrats are still trade protectionists (Gephart for example) but others (such as Bill Clinton) learned that you cannot compete in a world-wide market by keeping labor costs high.
Bush may have a lot of faults in other areas, but his devotion to free trade at least partially makes up for them.
Is that so? Then why are they busy setting up free trade agreements that are helping the Indians and Chinese find jobs? Why is it everytime they push for yet more guest worker programs they tell us it's to meet the economic needs of enmployers?
For a government that isn't supposed to be the "World's Greates Employment Office!" they're putting on one heck of a show, at least when it comes to finding cheap labor for large corporations.
Hats off on your great post.....very well said.